Love is a Battlefield
by yuiotypo
Summary: What if Sodapop and Sandy had stayed together? What if they got married and had a baby? This is the story of Rosie Curtis, a girl who is transported back to the '60s. What if she has to choose between keeping her family together and true love?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

**Disclaimer: This story is based on events and characters from S.E. Hinton's story The Outsiders. This story is purely for entertainment; all credit goes to S.E. Hinton.**

It all started on a Friday. Friday, July 17th, 1984 to be exact. It was my sixteenth birthday and all I could think about was the new boy moving down the block, the fact that I had grown a whole cup size bigger, and that I was finally old enough to get my drivers license. I was lying on my bed listening to Cyndi Lauper's new song, Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Mom couldn't stand modern music; she said it made mush of your brain. Can you believe her! She's still stuck in the '60s – that's when her and my dad met. I knew that my father was head over heels for my mom, but sometimes I wondered if she felt the same way about him.

"Rosanna Grace Curtis! I want you to turn down that racket right this second!" my mom shouted, stomping into my room with her hands on her hips. She had her short light blond hair pushed out off her forehead with a headband and had an apron around her waist. Her turquoise eyes, which happened to be the same exact shade of turquoise mine, shone with anger. Like I said before, she hates me listening to popular music.

"That music will surely turn those lovely young brain cells to mush!" she scolded me. She huffed and walked over to my radio-cassette, making the music come to a halt. Usually I would've yelled at mom about how this was my room and I could listen to whatever I wanted, but I didn't feel like starting an argument today.

"Oh, and happy birthday darling," she told me, giving me a kiss on the head. Bipolar much? "I have to go to work now though; I'll be back later, okay?" I nodded and waved her out of my room. Mom and I definitely weren't as close as we used to be.

"Your father and I have something we want to talk to you about later on, okay honey?" she asked. "All right mom. Can I please get some privacy?" I asked, trying to be patient.

"Okay sweetie. Wear something pretty for school!" she told me. Mom was an all around girly girl; she hadn't grown up with a lot of money, and now that we were finally out of debt and doing well in the money department, she wanted me to have all the luxuries that other normal teenager would have.

She left my room and I proceeded to get ready. I wore pink tights with black spandex shorts over them and a loose white off the shoulder shirt over that. Under my shirt I wore a lime green tank top, letting one of the straps show. I scrunched up my long white-blond hair with mousse and put a headband around my forehead. Perfect.

I grabbed my schoolbag, skipped down the stairs and into the kitchen and grabbed my lunch. My dad was sitting at the table getting ready to go to his job. Since the owner had died 3 months ago, my father was now the proud owner of the DX gas station he had been working at since he was just sixteen years old.

"Hi daddy!" I greeted, kissing him on the cheek.

"Hi baby. Happy birthday," he said, grabbing his DX hat, "I gotta go to work, me and your mama have to have a chat with you tonight."

"You don't seem all too happy about that," I told him, noticing the glum look he tried to hide.

"Well Rosie, to tell ya the truth, I'm not looking all too forward to this chat. It was your mama's idea," he said. "Why she's doing this on your birthday, I'll never know." Obviously this was not something I would particularly enjoy hearing.

"Well, I gotta go to school. How do you like my outfit? Groovy or what?" I asked, trying to lighten the mood. Daddy looked up at me and smiled.

"You look exactly like your mother did when she was your age. Twice as beautiful though," he winked. "Oops. Don't tell her I said that." I laughed.

"My lips are sealed," I jokingly assured him, "See ya later Daddy," I walked out the door, waving.

School was a drag. I got wished happy birthday about 5 billion times, when the day ended I was glad to get out of there. If someone uttered the words "happy" and "birthday" in the same sentence again, I think I'd go crazy.

After a birthday dinner with my parents, I was left wondering what on earth they had to tell me. I was kinda scared after my talk with Dad this morning.

"Rose, could you come in here please!" my mom shouted at me from the dining room. I had been in the family room watching MTV. I sighed and got off the couch, walking into the dining room and sitting across the table from mom and dad. Dad looked like he had been crying.

"Yeah?" I asked, starting to panic. Dad crying was not a good sign. Never had my father cried in front of me before.

"Honey.." my mom started, then paused, looking like she was trying to find a way to phrase what she was about to say. As she opened her mouth to talk again, the phone rang. I let out the breath I hadn't realized I had been holding as mom went to grab the phone. When she left, I looked up at my dad.

"Dad.. How bad is it?" I asked, gulping.

"Bad. Real bad." Was his reply. He looked down at his hands and I sucked in more air. Mom walked back into the room.

"Who was it?" I asked her. She had a girlish smile on her face.

"Uh," she hesitated, "Wrong number." She told me, sitting down. I didn't believe her.

"So, you were saying?" I asked impatiently. I was tired of waiting for her to tell me what was up. Mom reached across the table and took my hand in hers.

"Rosie, sweetie. You know the story of how me and your father met, right?" I nodded. "Well, when we met, I.." she paused, sighing. "I loved him so much. Right from the start. But as time went on, I realized that I wasn't the only one who felt that way about him. Girls loved your father, and I had a hard time dealing with that. I was so self conscious and I didn't think I was enough for him," she looked at her lap, getting teary eyed.

"I had turned to.. other men that I thought were good enough for me.. to make me feel better," she hesitated, waiting for my reaction. I just blinked. "I'm just going to get to the point." She looked up at me. I nodded, waiting for her to continue.

"You're.. not your father's child. Your dad agreed to marry me after he found out that I was pregnant with another man's child, and I agreed." She told me. Wait, what?

I blinked. What did she expect me to say to that?

"And.. I have recently been talking a lot to Joe, he's your father, and I have decided that I've been grateful for everything your father has provided for us, but.. I want to be happy. I'm.. going to get back together with Joe." She told me. I didn't know how to react. I wanted to slap her. "Now that all of our money problems have been put to bed, I thought this was a great time to break the news to you."

"How.. how could you? How could you do this to us?" I asked, looking at her with disgust. "And on my birthday?"

"Honey, I want to be happy," She told me. "And I want to be happy as soon as possible."

"You want to be happy? Hah. It's all about you, isn't it?" I asked, standing up and slamming my hands on the table.

"It's not like that Rosanna, and you know it," she told me, standing up as well.

"Mom. It's EXACTLY like that. It's ALWAYS like that!" I shouted. Dad just sat there, staring at his hands. "I can't even look at you." I told my mother.

"Rosanna Grace Curtis! I am our mother and I will not tolerate being spoken to like that!" she shrieked.

"Mother? I would not call you a mother," I told her. I could feel hot tears running down my face. "Mothers care for their children and their well-being. You're not a mother – you're simply an old lady that I share a house with. You're like a roommate. Only worse." I stood up and grabbed dad's hand. "C'mon, Daddy."

He wouldn't move. I pulled his hand harder until he had stood up. He gave one last sad look to my mother before following me upstairs.

We ran up the stairs and into my room, locking the door behind us.

"I didn't want to tell you this way." He said quietly.

"Daddy.. I was gonna find out eventually," I assured him. He nodded and looked at his hands again. I hated seeing my Dad this way. I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around him. This triggered his tears.

"Rosie, I love your mama so much. Don't you ever think of her as a bad person, she just wants to be happy," he told me. I nodded, even though I would never think of what my mother had done to us in such a positive way.

That night, my father and I lay in my bed together and cried. It was so painful knowing that my family was falling apart, and having this told to me on my birthday? Bonus. I will never forgive her for doing this to us. The only thing that ran through my mind before I fell asleep was, I wish I had some way to go back and tell Sodapop Curtis to never fall in love with Sandy Jones.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: This story is based on events and characters from S.E. Hinton's story The Outsiders. This story is purely for entertainment; all credit goes to S.E. Hinton.

I woke up the next morning with the sun shining in my eyes and a sore back. I opened my eyes, squinting, trying to get used to the harsh lighting. That's when I realized where I was. I jumped up, almost hitting my head on the top of the table that I was laying under. Slowly I got up, using the table as balance. I looked around the brightly lit restaurant and realized that I must be in the old Dingo. Huh. How'd I get here?

I rubbed my head and walked over to the cashier.

"Mam? Mind telling me how I got here?" I asked. She smiled at me.

"Oh Rosanna. Someone must have had a bit too much to drink at ol' Buck's last night!" she winked. Who's Buck and why would I be drinking at his house? She looked me up and down and laughed. "Honey, what are you wearing?" she giggled. I looked down at my outfit. My black spandex with a hot pink tank top, what I usually slept in. What was wrong with what I was wearing?

Then I noticed what she was wearing.

A yellow skirt with a matching sweater and roller skates. Vintage, cute. Obviously we didn't share the same taste in clothing, but that didn't give her an excuse to laugh at what I was wearing, did it?

I awkwardly laughed along with her, and then continued to walk outside.

Walking outside, I realized something; while yes, I was still in Tulsa, it looked.. different. A good kind of different. There was a lot more to look at; the McDonald's and A&W that had been added in a couple years ago were no longer there, instead there was a clearing with a few trees scattered throughout it. The huge parking lot that used to be beside the restaurants was now a vacant lot. Weird.

After walking around town for a couple hours, I realized yes, this was the town I was born and raised in. Did it seem like it? No. It seemed different. People had been giving me odd looks all day. Most of the people in this part of town were dressed in leather jackets and had their hair greased back. Is this some kind of new trend I haven't been informed about?

When it got dark, I decided to head back home. I started kicking a small rock around, not realizing where I was walking. When I looked up to where my house should have been, I panicked.

There was nothing there.

I looked around. All the other houses were where they were supposed to be, why not mine? I remembered Dad telling me once that he and his two brothers had built the house shortly after he and Mom got married.

I shook my head. Our house couldn't have vanished into thin air. Could it have? After wandering around my neighbourhood for a couple of hours, I had come to the conclusion that yes, it was a definite possibility that my house disappeared. I was beginning to think that I was going crazy.

I didn't want to wander around the streets by myself for any longer than was necessary and knew I needed to find somewhere to sleep. I thought back to earlier on in the day when I saw that vacant lot. There were trash bins and trees around one area of it that I could hide in. As I was walking down the street, I saw some newspapers being blown in the wind and decided to grab them up. I didn't want to be too cold tonight, seeing as I was only in a tank top and shorts, so these could have to be make-shift blankets. If it hadn't been July then I surely would've froze to death out here.

As I approached the vacant lot, I heard a car in the distance that seemed to hold some rowdy boys. Not wanting to get into any trouble, I quickly ran and hid behind the big trash bins. I heard the car drive by and tried to catch my breath. Close call.

I got up from where I was standing and saw a small boy that looked to be about 14 sitting on the ground with newspapers covering his body. He seemed to have the same idea as me. He had dark hair, tanned skin, and what looked to be pitch black eyes. He looked up at me and smiled. I nodded to him. I took my newspapers and sat beside this unknown boy, both of us not saying a word to each other. That's how it was for the rest of the night. We both had a silent understanding of the other; we were both stuck here and didn't want to talk about why or how we ended up here.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Disclaimer: This story is based on events and characters from S.E. Hinton's story The Outsiders. This story is purely for entertainment; all credit goes to S.E. Hinton.

I woke up the next day to someone shaking my shoulders violently. Upon opening my eyes I saw two young boys standing in front of me with amused looks on their faces. One of them was the dark eyed quiet boy I'd slept beside last night and the other was a blue eyed kid with long hair that was greased back.

"Uh.." I moaned.

Intelligent. Really intelligent, Rose.

"Finally, you're awake!" said blue eyes, "you've been asleep all day." Huh? I looked up to the sky and saw that it was pretty dark out. Oh.

"Sorry, but who are you?" I asked, confused.

"I'm Ponyboy and that's Johnny," Said blue eyes, gesturing to himself and then to the quiet kid, "How 'bout yourself, miss?"

"Hmm, very original, Ponyboy," I laughed. "I'm Rosanna, Rose or Rosie will do just fine though, thank you." The boys nodded.

"So, any particular reason why you've been here two nights in a row?" asked Johnny, speaking up for the first time.

"Well," I started, "I kinda don't have a place to crash." I admitted, looking at the ground sheepishly. Ponyboy grinned.

"Well you seem pretty decent, even if you are dressed like a freak," he chuckled, "but I don't judge. You needa place to stay, huh?"

"Would be nice. Why, you got a place in mind?" I asked. He and Johnny seemed friendly enough, and I was desperate. Plus they were just kids, they'd probably take me back to their parents' place.

He nodded. "I got a place."

"Now hold on just one second. You aren't gonna take me back to your place and murder me, are ya?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Cause let me tell you right now, I have a black belt in karate and I'm not afraid to use it." I threatened jokingly. Ponyboy laughed and raised his hands, surrendering. "Ya caught me. We was gonna take ya home and cut ya up into tiny pieces, weren't we Johnnycakes."

We all laughed. They seemed like decent kids, and they were offering a place to stay. I couldn't say no to that.

"All right Rosie, we'll be on our way then if you'd like to join us?" asked Ponyboy. I nodded and started walking out of the vacant lot.

"So Rosie, you come around here often?" asked Johnny. I nodded.

"Actually, I live here. Born and raised." I stated proudly. "What area ya from?" asked Ponyboy.

"Middle of town. Around here, actually." I told him, "But it's odd. When I came home last night, my house was gone."

"What?" asked Johnny, surprised. "You think your parents just up and left on ya?"

"Well, it's complicated. My mom was actually leaving me and my dad for another guy. I don't know exactly where she would'a gone, but my Daddy wouldn't have left me here all on my lonesome." I told them.

"Awe, don't feel bad," said Ponyboy, "guess it just wasn't meant to be. My mama and dad died a couple months ago." I didn't feel so bad for myself anymore. At least if my parents separated, I'd still get to see them. Pony could never see his parents again.

"I'm so sorry for your loss," I told him. He nodded. "S'alright. Just wanted to make ya feel better about your situation."

"Thanks Pony. It's alright if I call you Pony, isn't it?" I asked. He nodded. "'course!"

These kids were so nice. I wondered why I'd never seen them around before.

"So uh, I'm just warnin' you. I have two brothers and they have a lot of friends that happen to be guys. So I'm sorry if they come onto ya." Said Pony sheepishly.

"Why would they come onto _me_?" I laughed.

"Well, just look at cha. Look what you're _wearing_. They aren't accustomed to seeing a girl in so little. Well, maybe Dally, but none of the other have seen a girl walkin around in little shorty shorts and a tiny tank top." Laughed Pony, gesturing to my outfit. I blushed.

"I woke up wearing this! It's what I sleep in, I don't usually walk around like this. Geesh." I giggled, trying to hide my blush. Hopefully they don't think of me as a hussy or something.

"Well, we're here. Home sweet home." Said Pony. I looked up at the house that he calls home. To me, it looked like a piece of crap. But, a home-y kinda piece of crap. This is what Pony lived in, and I respected that. As we were walking up the steps that lead to the front door, I heard loud laughter and yelling. I rolled my eyes. Boys.

We opened the door, and what I saw didn't surprise me at all.

There were two boys wrestling on the floor, while two others laughed and stood around watching. There was another man standing in the kitchen, watching with a look of disapproval. Pony, Johnny and I tried to sneak passed everyone without them noticing, but one boy looked up.

"Hey boys, who's the broad?" asked one of the boys who was wrestling. He was pretty tall with dark hair and shocking blue eyes. Actually, all of these boys had dark hair, except one that had dirty blond-ish hair, and he was starting to walk towards me.

Pony sighed. I knew he had wanted to sneak by unnoticed.

"Guys, this is Rosie. Rose, these are the guys." He gestured around the room at the boys. They had all stopped what they had been doing to look up.

"Hi." I said quietly, I didn't like being the center of attention.

"Well hello Rosie." Said the boy with dirty-blond hair. He had waltzed up to me and grabbed by hand, kissing the back of it. "Name's Keith, but you can call me Two-Bit." I laughed.

"Hi Two-Bit."

"Let me introduce you to the other boys, since Pony over here failed to do so." He said, walking me over to the man who was in the kitchen. "This is Darrel, we call him Darry. He likes to think he's the man of the house. See these muscles-" Darry interrupted Two-Bit. "That's enough Two." I giggled.

Next, he walked over to the two boys that had been wrestling.

"This rascal here is Steve. He likes girls and causing trouble." Two-Bit told me, "and this is Dallas. He enjoys both of those things as well. His record is about a mile long." I laughed. Dallas had to be one of the cutest boys in the room.

"Yeah, what's it to ya? Don't ya have some place else to be?" sneered Dallas. Oh damn. He could'a been so cute if his personality hadn't ruined it for him.

"Actually I don't. Which is the reason that Pony and Johnny were nice enough to bring me back here, but let's be honest. Being nice isn't something you're familiar with, is it?" I shot back.

He laughed. "Being _nice _to boys is something you're used to doing, I bet. I mean, look at what you're wearing. You ain't nothin' but a two-cent whore."

"Dally, that's enough." Said Darry, interrupting. "Awe, but it was just gettin' good!" said Two-Bit, laughing with Steve. One look from Dally silenced them. He walked out of the house, slamming the door behind him. How dare he?

Two-Bit sighed. "Continuing on with the introductions," he said. A tall-ish boy with dark hair and blue eyes proceeded to walk towards us. "This is-"

"Sodapop." He said, sticking out his hand, "Welcome to the Curtis residence."

S-Sodapop? That was not a name you cam across very often. Sodapop _Curtis _was a name you came across even less often. Sodapop Curtis happened to be my Daddy's name. And the fact that he happened to look identical to my Daddy, minus the age difference? I blinked.

Was this some kind of joke?


	4. Chapter 4

_Sorry for not updating sooner, I have been so busy with school lately, but here's the next chapter! Sorry it's so short, I just had to get it out though._

Chapter Four

**Disclaimer: This story is based on events and characters from S.E. Hinton's story The Outsiders. This story is purely for entertainment; all credit goes to S.E. Hinton.**

"Uh, Rosie?"

I shook my head, taking Soda's hand in my own.

"It's nice to meet you," I smiled.

If I told them that I thought Sodapop was my dad, they'd think I was crazy. It would be better if I just kept this to myself for a little while.

"All right! Now that we're done with introductions, why don't I show you around the house?" asked Two-Bit, "starting with the bedroom." He winked. I laughed and pushed him away playfully. "Cool."

"Okay, well this 's the livin' room." He said, gesturing around us. I nodded.

"This is the kitchen. This is the fridge." He pointed to the fridge. I noticed a small calendar on it and was curious about how many days I had been without a house or parents.

I walked up to the calendar and noticed the year.

1964.

"Uh, guys?" I asked nervously, "What year is this?"

"1964, doll. Why?" replied Sodapop.

"N-no reason." I assured them.

It was all starting to make sense. Why my house wasn't anywhere to be seen, why everyone was dressed differently, why the McDonalds had disappeared and been replaced with a park and a vacant lot, and why Sodapop happened to look exactly like my dad. Had I really gone back in time?

After my tour with Two-Bit, all the guys left and it was only Pony, Sodapop, Darry and I left at the Curtis house. I spent that night sleeping on the couch, thinking over what I had realized that day. I had the perfect opportunity to make sure that my dad never meets or falls in love with my mom. And with that thought, I fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

**Disclaimer: This story is based on events and characters from S.E. Hinton's story The Outsiders. This story is purely for entertainment; all credit goes to S.E. Hinton.**

I had spent a couple of uneventful days with the boys, learning my way around the town. I hadn't seen the boy who'd been rude to me the first day, whose name I found out was Dallas. You know that feeling that's described in lame movies, where you can't get your mind off someone, no matter what you do?

I am feeling said lame feeling right now.

As completely corny as it sounds, I've never seen eyes so blue. That's the thing I kept thinking back to. That's the thing that's mesmerizing me. I feel like a cheese ball. I don't think about guys like this. _Ever._ That's what my friends do, they obsess over boys. I think it's annoying and stupid as hell to base your whole world on one guy. Yet here I am..

Even though he was so rude to me, I was determined to talk to him again, no matter what the odds were that he'd be awful to me. If he was a bad person, I'd be reassured. It's easy to get over a horrible person.

So that's what I'm doing right now; planning a casual run in with Dallas. The guys said he'd be at Buck's, and gave me directions to his house. I made sure to dress appropriately, and by appropriately I mean I do not look appropriate what so ever. I was wearing a long sleeve tight black dress that went to the middle of my thighs and pink heels. If that doesn't catch Dallas' attention, I don't know what will.

I approached Buck's run-down house and knocked on the door. As I waited, I wrapped my arms around my torso. It was about 9:00 and pretty chilly. A couple seconds later, some random guy answered the door with a goofy grin on his face.

"Caann I help ya with anythinn, sweet thing?" he asked, obviously drunk off his ass. I looked past him and saw that the room inside was pretty crowded. I shook my head at him and pushed past him into what seemed to be a party.

"Where ya goinn, doll?" asked the drunk guy, wrapping his arms around my stomach from the back. I shook him off and walked into a crowd of people that would hopefully hide me from him. There were people grinding up against each other and drinking, in the corner I saw a bunch of people smoking. Once I got to the kitchen, I put my back to the wall and slid to the ground. What had I gotten myself into?

"Too crazy for ya out there, blondie?"

I looked up to see Dallas putting his beer bottle to his lips. He tilted his head back and took a swig.

"I guess you could say that," I chucked.

"Well look at you. You don't belong here, you're too... What's the word?" he paused, "Clean cut."

"I am not clean cut!" I defended, standing up.

"Prove it."

"Alright, I will." I grabbed the beer bottle from his hand and chugged what was left of it. I smirked at him and walked out of the kitchen. Now where's that drunk guy..

Ah, in the corner with the smoking guys. Why am I not surprised.

I walked over to the guys and leaned up against the wall. I sighed dramatically.

"Whaat's wrong broad?" asked the drunk guy. His friends turned and looked at me.

"I'm just so lonely," I said, making a pouty face. Drunk guy grinned.

"I thinnk I might be able to help ya out with that,"

"Oh, would you?"

He took my hand and clumsily led me to the dance floor. I made sure that Dallas was watching before attempting to grind against drunk guy. It wasn't actually as hard or awkward as it looked, after a while it was kinda fun. Well, minus the drunk guy. I made sure to keep eye contact with Dallas the whole time. After a couple songs, I told drunkey I needed a drink and walked in Dallas' direction.

"Well played, blondie," he nodded, "you not only succeeded in showing me that you're not clean cut, you also showed me you have a slutty side."

I gaped at him.

"Woah woah woah, I'm kidding, broad," he smirked. I pushed him to the side, "but your little, uh, boyfriend is looking a bit upset that you left him."

I looked over to drunk guy to see him moping at the side of the dance floor. I looked back at Dallas and shrugged.

"Am I supposed to care?" I joked.

Dallas smirked. "I'm startin to think that this is the beginning of something beautiful, blondie."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're stickin up for yourself, trying to prove yourself. Not letting me talk down to you. I like it," he said, "unlike the first time we met.."

"Jerk."


End file.
